My monthly hormones have returned from their extended pregnancy/breastfeeding hiatus and are attacking my poor skin with extra enthusiasm. Sore-feeling spots that brew just beneath the surface and an oily t-zone, but at the same time I have a bit of sensitivity and a tendency towards redness that means I have to treat my face with kid gloves. So to speak.

Here are the products I’ve been relying on to placate my angry, temperamental skin – this isn’t so much of a “routine” as a few supplementary skincare things that I’ve been swapping in as an emergency measure. I’ve used all of them (apart from the Blemish Dots) on non-hormonal skin too, so I’m by no means suggesting that these are purely PMT face-savers; they’re all-round top picks.

Clinique’s Mild Clarifying Lotion (£16.50 at Amazon here) is just brilliant. Swipe it on after cleansing  to very gently exfoliate and unclog the skin without stripping the absolute bejeezus out of it. As someone who looks upon the other Clinique Clarifying Lotions with something bordering on abject horror, this one is a bit of a surprise: the formula is soothing on sore skin and an easy pre-serum/moisturiser/oil step that takes seconds to do. Just pour a bit onto cotton wool and wipe.

The Extraordinary Rebalancing Facial Oil from L’Oreal Paris has been a fixture on my bathroom shelf for quite a few months, now; it does a great job of moisturising (as you’d expect) but also – somehow – seems to stop my t-zone from being quite so oily. It’s a lightweight, non-greasy formula and so sits just as well beneath makeup in the daytime (give it a good massage-in) as it does on a cleansed face at night. The formula is lovely (no mineral oil, for those who look out for that) and the ingredients list rivals those of some of my far, far more expensive oils. It’s £13.33 here.

A while ago I raved about the Blemish Patches from COSRX: emergency spot plasters that stop you from picking and squeezing and help to heal the pimple faster. The Blemish Dots from Skyn Iceland are the same sort of idea, except that instead of just forming a barrier they contain the spot-fighting ingredient salicylic acid so you’re actively treating the blemish as well as protecting it from grubby fingers. I think that the patches are slightly thinner than the CORSX ones, too, so perhaps less visible if you want to keep one on during the day. Though overnight is more ideal!

Gentle clay masks for PMT skin…

You can find them for £17.50 at Marks and Spencer here – quite pricey if you compare the little dots to a bottle of spot treatment gel, but I think very effective. And M&S are currently offering a free skin set worth £15 with every Skyn Iceland purchase, so that softens the blow somewhat!

The last weapon in my current anti-PMT-skin arsenal: Liquid Laser from Alpha-H. I’ve mentioned this a few times now, but it’s a great one if you want a serious moisture injection without having to layer on thick, heavy creams. I like to keep everything light and clean-feeling when I’m in that “everything feels grubby and unclean” stage of the month, and this is great if you want an overnight treatment that sinks straight in and feels fresh.

Soothing Moisturisers for Sensitive Faces… 

It’s a bit of a powerhouse concentrate, leaving the skin plumper and brighter without the potential risk of causing breakouts. I also find it to be reasonably gentle – not too tingly – which is important for me when I’m trying to keep my skin on an even keel. You can find Liquid Laser at Cult Beauty here – it’s £47.

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Olympus PEN

When people have a moan about my blog, top of the moan list is my photos. I am the first to say that my photographic skills are basic – when I look around some of the incredible photography on blogs it’s even more obvious that I’m showing inferior pictures and it’s bothered me for a long time. But, time is what I don’t have – to do a course or study on line or any of the things that might just pick the photos up a little.

So you can imagine that I practically bit off Olympus’s hand when they offered me the chance to host a photography workshop for my blog friends at their studio in Bishopsgate using the Olympus PEN Digital E-PL7 Camera. We had the best of tutors with Cleveland Aaron showing us around the camera (find him on Twitter at @cleve_A to see his profile picture taken by his four year old son! clearly photography skills run in the family!) and needing all of his patience!

So, I’m at the very beginning of my journey with the Olympus PEN Digital Camera E-PL7 but have managed to connect it to WIFI at home so that I can download pictures from the camera to my iPhone (I know..! It’s like discovering the microwave all over again – “it does what?”). As someone who has just existed with iPhone pics for the past two years, it’s really hard for me to tell you all the facilities because I don’t know them yet.. but one of the most useful aspects for bloggers is the flip down LCD screen that means you can selfie away very easily indeed.

Here’s one of the pictures I took last night while we were playing with how to use light. Bearing in mind I had only picked up the camera about five minutes previously, I’m rather pleased with it.

Olympus PEN

So, these are some of my ‘practice’ pictures – realistically, it is going to take some time for me to get used to it and find all the functions… but.. *thrilled face*!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Olympus PEN

I think we were very lucky to have Cleveland – he explained how to use the camera so well for us non-techies and in such a way that I came home with enough basic function knowledge to use it immediately – so don’t laugh at my new efforts – they WILL get better!

As a blogger camera, the Olympus PEN Digital Camera E-PL7 is probably the ultimate in ease of use (I mean, if I can, anyone can!) and versatility with functions that mean you can be creative rather than obvious (the ‘spot’ colour option where everything can be black and white except the one thing you want to be in colour), the tap screen to take a picture, the WIFI, the focus with everything blurry behind (I’m sure there’s a technical term for this!) – oh, so many things. I know it’s going to take a little while to learn it, but I genuinely feel I will have better photography on the blog from the PEN – in fact, I know I will. I am never, ever going to be David Bailey but pictures play such a big part of blogging, and my pictures are something I’ve felt self-conscious about (thanks, trolls) for a really long time. The best word to describe what I feel about this camera is relief. At last, I have the tools to do the job properly – although, caveat.. give me time to work my way around it!

Although we were given our cameras by Olympus, I now know I need to invest in the macro lense (£69) a ton of white paper, a tripod and a basic little lamp (I will take Mr BBB’s from the bedside..shh) as well as a cheap n cheerful LED lamp (Morrisons have them for £5, according to Mikhila @msbudgetbeauty). Sponsored as this is, I am genuinely SO happy to have this camera and I’d hand on heart recommend it a million times.

There’s a whole lot more to read up on about the camera HERE.

SPONSORED CONTENT

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I’ve been playing about with the Chanel Summer 2015 Makeup Collection – Méditerranée – and am completely head over heels with pretty much all of it. But especially – and this was something of a surprise to me – the “Stylo” eyeshadows, which are basically very lightweight cream eyeshadows in a stick. I have a love-hate relationship with cream eyeshadows because although they look glam on the lids and usually have the most intense (often metallic) shine, they can be a bit messy to apply and blend. Especially if you’re the kind of person (me) who just jams their finger into the pot and hopes for the best.

Not so with Chanel’s little eyeshadow numbers; you just take the lid off and scribble. If you want to, you can use a finger or brush to blend out the edges (I did in the pictures on this page), but the ends of the Stylo Eyeshadow are actually quite small, making application reasonably neat and precise.

I used the gorgeous Laurier Rose on my lids – the most flattering coppery-pink – and then Caroube, a shimmering bronze-cocoa, to define the lashline and add some drama to the outer corners of the eye.

I didn’t blend Caroube at all – just drew it on and left it to set. Which takes all of about two seconds. So that’s a warning to those who do want to blend: you need to have finger/brush ready to go as you’re applying the shadow. If you try to go back and blend after ten seconds – even five! – everything is set in place and the deed is done. Brilliant, because this is makeup at its fastest and most convenient – no dirty fingertips, no pots to fumble with, no brushes gathering fluff in the bottom of your handbag. Not so great for the disorganised, but – as I said – the tips of the shadow pens are really precise, so you can just scribble away sans blending if you want to. (Find them here online.)

I’m also rather enamoured with the Lumière d’Été, which is labelled an “Illuminating Powder” but works best (on me, at least) as a light, luminous bronzer. It’s too dark to be a highlighter and actually, even as a bronzer you have to tread carefully as tone-wise it’s on the warmer side… But swept lightly over cheeks, temples and decolletage it imparts a beautiful summery glow. And man is it pretty to look at! (Find it online here.)

I’m wearing the Lumière d’Été in all of the photos on this page – you can hopefully see how it warms the skin up. It’s a very soft and fine glow. And you can see in the photograph above my last favourite pick from the collection; the Rouge Coco Shine in Réveuse. A sumptuous, buttery nude with just the right amount of peachy-pinkness. So chic, so easy to wear and a great place to start if you want a “my lips but better”, balmy-textured lipstick to see you through the summer. Find it online here.

You can find the whole collection of Chanel Makeup Summer 2015 at House of Fraser here.

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